The film is based on a novel of the same name by Jo Brand, which was published in 2009. It’s set in the 1980s, with a soundtrack including the songs of The Smiths, and the plot revolves around a child coping with her mother’s schizophrenia. A heart-warming universal comedy that focuses on the life of an unusual family in rural England; it addresses mental health issues and their impact on the family – in a very real, sometimes stark, but also funny and affirming way.
The film’s director has said: “It’s not often you read scripts as unusual and as good as this one. Jo has used all her insight gained during her years as a psychiatric health worker to create a story that pulls no punches, but makes you laugh and leaves you with a wonderfully positive feeling at the end.”
Filming of The More You Ignore Me has now begun in Blackpool, and the cast has just been announced. Sheridan Smith will star as Gina, a mother suffering from declining mental health, alongside Ella Hunt, Sally Phillips, Sheila Hancock, Ricky Tomlinson, *Lisa Stansfield, and TVO regular Tom Davis – fresh from roles in Free Fire, Prevenge and of course, Murder In Successville.
Keith English is the director and Debbie Gray of Genesius Pictures, who collaborated with The Little Film Company on Northern Soul, is producing.
UPDATE* January 2017- We can confirm that Lisa will not be involved in this film drama project